Honeybee navigation: odometry with monocular input

When flying through narrow spaces, insects control their position by balancing the magnitude of apparent image motion (optic flow) experienced in each eye and their speed by holding this value about a desired set point. Previously, it has been shown that when bumblebees encounter sudden changes in the proximity to nearby surfaces -as indicated by a change in the magnitude of optic flow on each side of the visual field -they adjust their flight speed well before the change, suggesting that they measure optic flow for speed control at low visual angles in the frontal visual field. Here, we investigated the effect that sudden changes in the magnitude of translational optic flow have on both position and speed control in bumblebees if these changes are asymmetrical; that is, if they occur only on one side of the visual field. Our results reveal that the visual region over which bumblebees respond to optic flow cues for flight control is not dictated by a set viewing angle. Instead, bumblebees appear to use the maximum magnitude of translational optic flow experienced in the frontal visual field. This strategy ensures that bumblebees use the translational optic flow generated by the nearest obstacles -that is, those with which they have the highest risk of colliding -to control flight.

Section: Discussion Bumblebees Respond To Low Magnitudes Of Translatimentioning

confidence: 71%

Bumblebees measure optic flow for position and speed control flexibly within the frontal visual field

Linander

Dacke

Baird

2015

“…Moreover, experiments by Otto (1959) indicated that bees use both their outbound and inbound flights to gauge the distance encoded in the waggle dance. A more recent line of evidence describes distance estimation on the basis of the amount of image motion experienced while flying (Esch et al, 1994(Esch et al, , 2001Burns, 1995, 1996;Srinivasan et al, 1996Srinivasan et al, , 1997Srinivasan et al, , 1998Srinivasan et al, , 2000Si et al, 2003;Chittka and Tautz, 2003;Tautz et al, 2004). Results obtained in experiments conducted to test the so-called 'optic flow' hypothesis also indicate that information on the distance to food is acquired primarily during the outbound flight, although bees need and use distance information to navigate their inbound flights (Srinivasan et al, 1997(Srinivasan et al, , 1998.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…General methods Honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) gauge the distance flown by means of the retinal image flow experienced while flying (Esch and Burns, 1995;Esch et al, 2001;Srinivasan et al, 1996Srinivasan et al, , 1997Srinivasan et al, , 1998Srinivasan et al, , 2000Tautz et al, 2004). When bees fly through narrow tunnels, the walls of which are decorated with random visual textures, they indicate a distance through their waggle dances that is much greater than that actually flown (Srinivasan et al, 2000;Esch et al, 2001).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whenever the direction 3886 experience while flying provides them with some means of monitoring the distance travelled Burns, 1995, 1996;Srinivasan et al, 1996Srinivasan et al, , 1997Srinivasan et al, , 1998Srinivasan et al, , 2000Esch et al, 2001;Tautz et al, 2004). However, although the flown distance seems to be primarily gauged on the way to a food source (Heran and Wanke, 1952;Heran, 1956;Otto, 1959;von Frisch, 1965;Srinivasan et al, 1997Srinivasan et al, , 1998, honeybees also monitor distance information on the way back to their colonies (Otto, 1959;von Frisch, 1965;Srinivasan et al, 1997Srinivasan et al, , 1998. Hence, evaluating the encoding of the visually measured distance in the waggle dance first requires analysing how the distance information available both on the way to the goal and on the way back to the colony is finally represented in the length of the waggle-run.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Encoding spatial information in the waggle dance

Marco

Menzel

2005

connecting the subjective food location and the hive does not match the direction of the global vector, dancers refer to a direction close to that of the shortcut connecting the actual food location and the hive. Moreover, in our experiments, this direction was close to that of the inbound (food-to-hive) flight, indicating that landmarkbased information is computed during the inbound flight and that it may strongly affect the encoding of directional information in the waggle dance. Moreover, we found that the bees' experience of the terrain modulates the encoding of spatial information in the waggle dance, suggesting that interactions between path integration and visual landmarks are computed in the context of dance communication.

“…Accumulating evidence now suggests that honeybees use visual information to measure how far they have flown in a particular direction Chittka and Tautz, 2003;Esch and Burns, 1996;Esch et al, 2001;Si et al, 2003;Srinivasan et al, 1996Srinivasan et al, , 1997Srinivasan et al, , 1998Srinivasan et al, , 1999Srinivasan et al, , 2000Tautz et al, 2004). In particular, distance appears to be measured in terms of the amount of optic flow, or visual motion, that occurs on the eye during a given flight (i.e.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactions of visual odometry and landmark guidance during food search in honeybees

Vladusich

Hemmi

Srinivasan

et al. 2005

How do honeybees use visual odometry and goaldefining landmarks to guide food search? In one experiment, bees were trained to forage in an optic-flowrich tunnel with a landmark positioned directly above the feeder. Subsequent food-search tests indicated that bees searched much more accurately when both odometric and landmark cues were available than when only odometry was available. When the two cue sources were set in conflict, by shifting the position of the landmark in the tunnel during test, bees overwhelmingly used landmark cues rather than odometry. In another experiment, odometric cues were removed by training and testing in axially striped tunnels. The data show that bees did not weight landmarks as highly as when odometric cues were available, tending to search in the vicinity of the landmark for shorter periods. A third experiment, in which bees were trained with odometry but without a landmark, showed that a novel landmark placed anywhere in the tunnel during testing prevented bees from searching beyond the landmark location. Two further experiments, involving training bees to relatively longer distances with a goal-defining landmark, produced similar results to the initial experiment. One caveat was that, with the removal of the familiar landmark, bees tended to overshoot the training location, relative to the case where bees were trained without a landmark. Taken together, the results suggest that bees assign appropriate significance to odometric and landmark cues in a more flexible and dynamic way than previously envisaged.